Jennifer Basil

After receiving her Ph.D., for which she performed a comparative study of the cognitive and neural correlates of spatial memory in food-storing birds, Jennifer Basil moved to the Marine Biological Laboratory in Woods Hole, Mass., for a post-doc studying the sensory and navigation behavior in a variety of crustaceans. After a Grass Fellowship, Basil became a senior research associate at the MBL, examining the sensory biology and cognition of the Chambered Nautilus. Her laboratory's area of focus is the evolution of complex brains and behavior using the comparative approach, and she uses cephalopod molluscs as her model system. Focus: Animal learning and memory, evolution of brain and behavioral complexity, sensory ecology, and neural basis of behavior -- using primarily invertebrate models.

Basil, J. and F. Grasso. "Perspectives on the Evolution of Complex Brains and Behaviors in Cephalopods." Brain Behaviour and Evolution. In press. (Books and Publications: Forthcoming Publications) 2012

Research Activities

Friday Harbor Marine Laboratory site visit, January. 2010

--Evolutionary Biology of the Chambered Nautilus: 1) Behavioral and neural correlates of learning and memory in Nautilus, 2) Function of the chemosensory appendages of Nautilus in foraging, 3) Use of odor in identifying conspecifics and mates, 4) Biomechanics of the radula in feeding in Nautilus.

--Comparative Olfactory Biology of Spiny Lobster: 1) Comparative morphology of antennules of five species of Spiny Lobster (American Museum of Natural History; Smithsonian), 2) Comparative orientation behavior of five species of spiny lobster.

Gurwitz, C., J. Basil, S. Perdikaris and T. Raphan. "Developing a STEM Curriculum for Early College Programs: A High School to College Continuum." The Sixth International Conference on Education and Information Systems, Technologies and Applications. June. (Conferences, Seminars and Symposiums: Conference Presentation) 2008